It began with coming into the arrival area of JFK Airport and there they were Tobi and Sue waiting for me with flowers. Isn’t this cute of them? So straight to the car and then I had my first ride through New York…and I had my first tries to communicate myself which was unfortunately not that easy as I had it imagined. Without driving through the South Bronx and getting robbed (as it looked like at some points of time) we arrived at Sue’s house. And there I had to overcome my first obstacle: stopping Bugsy and Oreo from killing me because of their excitement that there’s someone new in the house. After getting to know the beautiful apartment and the house I wanted to fall into my bed real fast, but not before I tasted the wonderful meatloaf with potato salad Sue made in no time.
The second day in Union, New Jersey was full of events. It started with a visit at the garage (Tobi already wrote about), this jazz bar with delicious food and a great atmosphere. As a surprise Sue (thank you again for that) made the life band play a song for me to say “Welcome in the US, Evelyn!”. This made my homesickness shrink a tiny little bit and put a smile on my face. After my first encounter with American food (which does not deserve all that nasty prejudices) the next event was waiting. I just say SUPERBOWL!!!!!! The only thing I new about it was that is has to do with football. That changed that evening dramatically. With the competent comments of Tobi’s college MJ (see pictures) we both got to know the rules and that there is (one should not believe it) a sense in that game. To be honest it was real fun but on that evening my Jetlag decided to knock me out. After a big cup of tea and really jammy food at the Irish pub where we were watching the game (which was not appropriate for the event as I later learned) I was all excited and went to bed even after midnight. But then Monday came…
Hell was I lucky to have Tobi with me…I would have been lost else (which was Tobi’s favourite activity on his first days). Finally after an hour car-train-bus ride we arrived at Alcatel-Lucent Murray Hill. And there he was Rob Petersen my new advisor for the next three months. Our conversation did not last the 4 minute way to the office full of sad qubicles and without windows and this should stay like that until now. I never got rid of the impression that Rob was slightly overtaxed and didn’t really know what do speak/do with me. Fortunately, I got my instructions for my project from my German advisor so I just visit to Rob and Rick(my other college in my department; yes it’s just the three of us) for around 2 minutes maybe twice a week to ask a little question. So there’s not much to say about work and the following summarises it quite good, I think:
• The prejudice that IT guys can socialise is true (see Rick and Rob)
• Others in the IT department who take you with them for lunch are only assistances and either gossiping women or gay (but they talk to you and are really nice, so who cares???)
• I still don’t know why I took a project where I have to do with databases (but I have to say when things work it is real fun to program, at least that’s what I heard from others)
• People in Auditing are much nicer and also take you out for lunch even if you don’t belong to their department (thank to all of them and to Tobi for making the contact)
New York, New York dim dim dadida, dim dim dadida (yeah Frankie)
So where to begin with such an overwhelming city? My second weekend was completely dedicated to the Big Apple. Tobi and me went both Saturday and Sunday to do touri-sightseeing in the most astonishing city I have been so far. It is just a mix of everything in every sense, the people and their language, colour and lifestyle as well as the architecture from modern to Tudor age. We tried to see it all, so that’s why we walked (nuts as we are) all the freakin’ 42 blocks down from midtown to Ground Zero. But it was worth every step. Watch it yourself:
Grand Central Station
Times Square
Empire State Building
UN Building
St Paul’s Chapel
Chinatown
The second day as if we didn’t have enough of it we walked around the Financial District and Brooklin Brigde. And those are the impressions we tried to catch on photos:
Skyline of the Big Apple
6th Avenue
Statue of Liberty
Financial District
Brooklin Bridge
Financial District from Brooklin Bridge
New York by night
I don’t want to write too much about New York because can’t understand that city by reading about it. You have to be there and feel, smell and see it with all your senses.
Enough of culture, let’s get shallow, let’s get shopping. Where to? – The Woodberry Commons of course. This little outlet village is a paradise especially when they have sales!! We spend all Saturday of the next weekend there feeling great and getting rid of our money. But that’s what money’s for, right?
The new week began with a difference: Evelyn alone in New Jersey. Tobi was with his department on holiday (or auditing as he calls it) in Alpharetta. So little Evelyn had to get along on her own. And well, what should I say? It was not that bad. I did my laundry (for the first time; the ones who know me may now say: Oh yes of course three weeks are over, that’s when she normally gets home with a huge luggage full of dirty cloths), I worked on my database…(what??????? Did you say you worked AT HOME???? Be carful you know the IT-virus is quite dangerous). And that’s also how I ended up writing the first post on this blog.
So there’s just one more thing left to say for me: Keep with it, next news coming soon…
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